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“The bedroom doors will lock, and every lamp in the suite will turn white. If that happens, get behind the ward and let me deal with whoever came through.”

I looked at the collar and waist chain. “You’re still attached to the throne.”

“I’m also stronger than anyone Adrian is likely to send through a door. The chains limit how far I can move. They don’t make me harmless.”

His confidence reminded me what he was. He had been careful with my wrist and my body because he chose control. The muscles across his bare back and the fangs he hadn’t bothered hiding gave a clearer picture of what happened when he stopped being careful.

We returned to the suite. A door beside the bedroom had opened while we were gone. It led to a small private sitting room with a cold fireplace and two narrow windows showing the underground garden.

Stellan stopped at the threshold.

“This was Cecily’s room,” he said.

His hand went cold around mine.

I entered first. Dust covered the chairs and the low table, but the walls were clean. Several formal portraits had been removed, leaving pale rectangles against the stone. A small carving remained beside the fireplace, low enough that someone must have made it while sitting on the floor.

It showed a woman with long hair and a pointed crown. The lines were simple and uneven. Eight points rose above her head, and the longest leaned to one side. The initials C.V. had been cut under the figure.

“Did Cecily carve this?”

Stellan came to stand behind me. “Yes. The court painters kept making the Crown larger in every portrait. She said they’d eventually paint her as a head with seven metal spikes and no body. This was her correction.”

I touched the stone beside the carving. “Was she your wife?”

“We ruled together. We never married or shared a bed. Cecily was my queen because Harrowmere chose her bloodline, and we became friends long before she accepted the Crown.”

Relief moved through me, followed by annoyance that I’d felt it. Stellan noticed but kept his reaction to himself.

Only a few minutes earlier, I’d been naked on his lap and listening to him come with my name in his mouth. I could still feel his hands on me despite the clean clothes and the quiet room. If I wanted whatever was starting with Stellan, I needed the truth that had ended his last partnership with a human queen.

“You told Adrian the Crown was controlling her when you killed her,” I said. “I want the whole account now. Start when you knew she was in danger.”

Stellan looked at the rough figure. For several seconds, he said nothing. I waited. He had promised me a direct answer, and filling the silence for him would make it easier to avoid the worst part.

“Cecily had worn the Crown for six years,” he said. “At first, it let her open Harrowmere and stop any vampire in the court from harming a human under her protection. She used that power carefully. Then it began speaking when she was alone. She stopped sleeping and heard threats in harmless conversations. Soon she kept guards outside her rooms because she believed someone was coming to take it.”

“Did you know Adrian had interfered with it?”

“I knew he was spending too much time in the chapel. I thought he was strengthening the wards after an attack on the estate. He was feeding his blood into the Crown and teaching it to answer him. By the time I understood, it had made Cecily believe I was the threat.”

Stellan moved to the fireplace and braced one hand against the mantel. The chain at his waist remained loose, but his body had gone rigid.

“On the last night, she ordered everyone into the chapel. The guards and the families sheltering under Harrowmere were forced inside with their human households. The Crown used her voice to turn them against one another. Some fought the command. Others couldn’t. People who’d lived together for years started tearing each other apart while Adrian stood behind the altar and watched the whole fucking thing.”

I pictured the chapel full of people who couldn’t trust their own bodies. One woman’s voice had been enough to make everyone nearby dangerous. Stellan had watched his court attack itself while the person he trusted stood at the middle of it.

Cold moved across my skin. “What did Cecily do?”

“She tried to remove the Crown. It drove the points into her head and took control of her hands. When I reached her, she ordered me to kneel and surrender my heartblood. The command forced me down, but I could still move one arm. She came at me with a silver knife while the Crown held my guards away.”

He turned from the fireplace. His grey eyes had darkened around the red.

“I caught her wrist. For a few seconds, I believed I could hold her until the Crown weakened. Then she gave another order, and three of my guards put blades to the throats of the humans beside them. I had enough control to stop Cecily or enough to fight her command. I couldn’t do both.”

“So you killed her.”

“I pulled her close and bit through the artery in her throat. She died quickly. The command ended, and my guards released the people they were holding.” His voice stayed level, but one hand closed hard around the edge of the mantel. “Edith entered while Cecily’s blood was still in my mouth. Adrian told her I’d murdered the queen to take the Crown. I was half mad with her blood and grief, and I attacked him instead of explaining. Edith used the court to chain me before I killed him.”